Luther Dennis, retired Dallas police officer, dies at 81

Luther Dennis was a fair man who liked doing the right thing to help people during his more than 20 years as a Dallas police officer.

One night, Dennis and his patrol partner handled a call where three little children were separated from their mother, said his daughter, Rebecca Dennis of Irving.

“Dad said it was cold weather and they didn’t have shoes, socks or clothes,” his daughter said. “He and his partner went out bought them shoes and socks and little coats at some all-night pharmacy.

“They took them to breakfast and turned them in to CPS the next morning,” she said. “He came home and told my mom, ‘I don’t have any money left.’”

Dennis, 81, died Friday of heart failure at Northgate Plaza Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Irving.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at Brown’s Memorial Funeral Home in Irving. His ashes will be divided between Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery, where his wife is buried, and Old Saltillo Cemetery in Hopkins County, for which his family donated the land.

Dennis was born in Saltillo in northeast Texas, where he graduated from high school.

He served in the Navy during the Korean War aboard the destroyer USS Trathen.

In 1955, he married Margaret Louise Davis, who died in 2000.

After serving in the Navy, Dennis attended East Texas State Teachers College, now Texas A&M University-Commerce, while he was a police officer in Sulphur Springs. He later attended El Centro College in Dallas.

A Sulphur Springs police captain advised Dennis to become an officer in a big city like Dallas or Fort Worth, his daughter said.

Dennis applied to the police department in Dallas, where he drove a bus and lived in a boarding house while he waited to be hired. His wife, a nurse at a Sulphur Springs hospital, stayed in East Texas until Dennis was hired.

One day — while Dennis was driving his bus — the Dallas Police Department left a message at the boardinghouse that he had an interview the next day. He returned the call and explained that his suit was in Sulphur Springs.

“It was like a pair of black pants and an open shirt that he wore for his interview,” his daughter said. “They hired him on the spot.”

Dennis was a patrolman for about 15 years before taking an office job in records. He retired in 1982.

In addition to his daughter, Dennis is survived by two sons, David Dennis of Irving and Matthew Dennis of Grand Prairie; a sister, Vivian Dennis-Monzingo of Rockwall; and six grandchildren, one of whom, Paul Dennis, he had raised from the age of 3.

Memorials may be made to the Old Saltillo Cemetery Association, P.O. Box 123, Saltillo, Texas, 75478.

To post a comment, log into your chosen social network and then add your comment below. Your comments are subject to our Terms of Service and the privacy policy and terms of service of your social network. If you do not want to comment with a social network, please consider writing a letter to the editor.